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MICE MUNCH ON WOMAN'S SAVINGS

Mice in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg reportedly gnawed through $6,000 in cash that a woman had been saving in a food jar -- a common alternative to Russia's risky banking system.

The woman told officials at a local bank that she had saved $30,000 in the glass jar, which she kept in the cellar of her home in Yekaterinburg, 900 miles east of Moscow, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported Thursday.

The mice apparently ate through the plastic lid on the jar. The woman brought the remains of the chewed-up $6,000 into a branch of the Uralvneshtorgbank to see if they were worth anything, ITAR-Tass said.

The bank often accepts mangled notes, but said this was its first experience with mouse-eaten money.